Seven twisted voices, seven outrageous stories.True Wit is a beach-ready collection of off-kilter tales from seven of today’s most original humorous authors from around the globe.What makes you laugh?In Benefit of Hindsight for Ghosts, a disoriented spirit gets more than he bargained for when he ends up haunting a jail against his will. Or dive into a bizarrely comic tale of mistaken identity in The Curious Case of a Murder Being Announced at Dos...

Mental Crudites – Appetizers for the Creative Mind gives the aspiring Science Fiction writer lots of ideas for building their future worlds. This volume, Helping Science Fiction Writers Get Their Ideas Off The Ground, contains fourteen chapters describing different spaceship propulsion systems that authors can use to move their characters from a planet's surface to orbit, between planets in a star system, or across the interstellar void. Journeys can take weeks, y...

For three decades after the Cold War, NATO member states no longer faced a major threat, and focused on out-of-area operations. They took the opportunity to reduce defense spending and foster their own national defense industries; interoperability was limited to air and maritime missions on a small scale. The 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea and war by proxy in eastern Donbass was a wake-up call, while China's creeping seizure and fortification of islands in the South China Sea, as well a...

Silence isn't golden; in business, it's a liability.Communication is often cited as a "soft skill," but in Overcommunicate, Rob Johnson proves it is the hardest-and most vital-work a leader does. Real alignment doesn't happen in a single memo or a quarterly town hall; it happens in the intentional, repetitive, and adaptive ways we connect with our people.Drawing on candid conversations with top business leaders, Johnson highlights the nuances of executive presence....

This book examines the key dimensions of 21st century war, and shows that orthodox thinking about war, particularly what it is and how it is fought, needs to be updated.Accelerating societal, economic, political and technological change affects how we prepare, equip and organise for war, as well as how we conduct war – both in its low-tech and high-tech forms, and whether it is with high intensity or low intensity. The volume examines changes in warfare by investigating the key fea...

The First World War in the Middle East swept away five hundred years of Ottoman domination. It ushered in new ideologies and radicalised old ones - from Arab nationalism and revolutionary socialism to impassioned forms of atavistic Islamism. It created heroic icons, like the enigmatic Lawrence of Arabia or the modernizing Atatürk, and destroyed others. And it completely re-drew the map of the region, forging a host of new nation states, including Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and S...

This new work examines how the European states, the United Kingdom and the United States will approach the defence and Security of Europe in the medium and long-term. It is often assumed that Brexit, the United Kingdom’s departure from the political and commercial European Union, would affect defence and security profoundly, but the basis of that assumption is rarely analysed. Bringing together a panel of specialists from Europe, the UK, the EU, and the United States, this volume evaluates...

What was British imperialism and was it an important element of modern globalization? Were economic, political or military factors paramount in imperial expansion? Do post-colonial theories assist or mislead historians? How have histories of imperialism changed, and are current analyses satisfactory?Robert Johnson's invaluable guide offers a succint, easy-to-follow introduction to the key issues and historiography of British imperialism from its origins to the conversion to the Com...

Central Asia is likely to become a new arena of international interest in the twenty-first century, not least because of its volatile cocktail of abundant oil and gas, Islamic Jihadist groups, dictatorial regimes and the political and economic rivalry of the United States, Russia, China and Iran. Some believe that it could become the ‘new Middle East’ – a battleground for access to precious resources, religious fundamentalism and democratic politics. Narcotics, ethnic tensions and impoveri...

Since 2001 there has been considerable interest in the individual conflicts that have engulfed the states of South Asia, from the long insurgency of Myanmar, through the struggle of the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, the Maoist insurgency in Nepal, the unrest in the Punjab and Assam, the Bangladeshi war of independence, the gruelling conflict in Kashmir, to the intractable conflicts of Afghanistan and the current ‘War on Terror’. In A Region in Turmoil: South Asian Conflicts since 1947

The essential military tactics that have enabled commanders from Alexander the Great to General Giap to achieve victory on the battlefield.This groundbreaking book examines battle tactics that have achieved victory through the ages. Drawing on examples of battles on land, at sea, and in the air, the authors reveal the enduring value of each tactic in clear and compelling descriptions and analysis.How can you draw your enemy off-balance? When is the best mom...

When Trevor Hawkins hits the open road in his beat-up old camper van with his incorrigible dog, Milly, his quest for adventure soon spirals dangerously out of control. The simple act of flushing a hotel toilet transforms his life from redundant sales assistant to fugitive from a gang of psychopathic villains, the police, and MI5.Then there's private detective Sandra Gray, who could cheerfully throttle him for turning a well-paid, piece-of-cake job into a total nightmare. Or could s...